How many guys or girls will be doing this since the weather is beginning to warm back up? I've spray tanned a couple of times but I like the beds better. Spray tan was awkward getting sprayed by gal in her mid 40's with me wearing a thong. Thankfully I didn't pop wood while she was doing it.

There's no such thing as a "healthy" tan, regardless of what the charlatans at the tanning salons tell you. Tanning prematurely ages the skin and increases the risk of cancer by a large factor. As more people understand this and fewer people are damaging their bodies in this manner, the more bizarre really tan people look to me.

i personally don't find tans to be all that attractive. if God gave you dark skin, that's wonderful, but if you're naturally fair and you tan, it looks awful.

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You are right. If anyone has any Native American, African, or any other olive complexion descendants in the blood line, tanning is easy. All I have to do is go swimming or work in my garden and I will naturally get slightly darker. I feel so sorry for fair skinned people that look like lobsters after getting a tan.

How many guys or girls will be doing this since the weather is beginning to warm back up? I've spray tanned a couple of times but I like the beds better. Spray tan was awkward getting sprayed by gal in her mid 40's with me wearing a thong. Thankfully I didn't pop wood while she was doing it.

This Cowboy is out in the sun enough that I don't need a tanning booth or spray tan. Even in the winter I still get enough sun being outside that I will probably end up with pre mature aging and or skin cancer.

The only kind of tan I consider even slightly healthy is a natural tan. Not one using tanning lotion of any sort or even tanning beds or whatever...

Sure, I tend to sunburn first, then under that sunburn, have a nice tan waiting for me, but at least I have never gotten sunburn blisters.

It's also unhealthy to stay totally out of sunlight... Because you need the sun for various reasons. Sunlight can help those with depression and other problems...

BTW, why do people say that it causes pre-mature aging? So what, you get a few little wrinkles. If you're getting actual sunlight, then it's not exactly pre-mature... It's natural...

In the past several years that I've lived up north in Western WA, I've gotten very pale, and tended to hole myself in my house more than getting out... The cold weather doesn't exactly help as I have a very small frame...

I like seeing a tan on guys, but only if it's a natural one. Fake tans are unattractive.

i personally don't find tans to be all that attractive. if God gave you dark skin, that's wonderful, but if you're naturally fair and you tan, it looks awful.

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Wow! To think I was afraid of posting a contrarian opinion on the devastating effects of tanning...It seems that there is a consensus on this thread at least.

I am stunned by the still-commonly-held notion that tanning looks "healthful" since we've known for well over a decade that the sunlight is practically the only cause of the visible signs of aging.

The information is all over the web for the layperson to absorb yet the message is only slowly penetrating.

I believe that the medical commmunity made a big mistake by marketing UV-avoidance as a way to prevent cancer. Most people think they'll get away with cancer. They will NOT get away with wrinkly, sagging, blemished skin...and that's the message that they should send to the public IMHO.

OK first of all, when did you go to medical school? I am guessing never. Tanning does not increase the chance of cancer, severe burns do. Tanning is your natural responce to the sun. The same sun that we have been running around under naked for hundreds of thousands of years. Yes it can cause wrinkles but that is more from the dehydration of the skin than the UVa and UVb. And really, tan looks much better than pasty white. We both tan as you can see, and yes I work in healthcare

well I can tell you from personal expereince that it causes skin cancer. My brother has worked construction for 24 years. About 20 months ago he was diagnosed with stage 3B malenoma.

His treatment options were surgical removal of the cancer which had spread to 5 lymph nodes and his parotid (salivary gland). Only treatment option beyond surgery was interfuron treatment for 24 months with a 5 percent chance of a cure.

Reality is that he has very little chance of living the next 5 years without the return of cancer. Malenoma is one of the least forgiving types of cancer there is and one of the highest death rates.

Live in ignorance if you will or do your own studies. Be a fool if you wish. The information is out there if you want to find it.

I will keep my pasty white skin thank you. Yes, I have worked in healthcare and I DO have vast knowledge and understanding of the body.

Gold Member

OK first of all, when did you go to medical school? I am guessing never. Tanning does not increase the chance of cancer, severe burns do. Tanning is your natural responce to the sun. The same sun that we have been running around under naked for hundreds of thousands of years. Yes it can cause wrinkles but that is more from the dehydration of the skin than the UVa and UVb. And really, tan looks much better than pasty white. We both tan as you can see, and yes I work in healthcare

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See "Fat Al Gore..." thread.

Al Gore is fat, ergo, global warming does not exist...

You work "in healthcare", ergo, you're a proxy for the American Board of Dermatology.

You tan, ergo "tan looks much better than pasty white".

There is no such thing as "second-hand tanning" so suit yourself, it's your skin and your health.

Gold Member

I don't go out tanning as I'm normally the colour most people want to be when tanned. My boyfriend, my former roommate and my sister (I'm black, she's white) all do spray tans. I think it depends on where you go to get it. Some give your skin the colour of a burned carrot. Other's, just a nice healthy glow and a bit of a tanned colour.

Personally, I feel spray tanning is a quite a bit safer than sitting in a tanning bed.

OK first of all, when did you go to medical school? I am guessing never. Tanning does not increase the chance of cancer, severe burns do.

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Bullshit. Total, complete, utter and arrogant bullshit.

I defy you to find ONE dermatologist who will agree with you. My father is the past president of the American Academy of Dermatology and past secretary of the American Medical Assosciation. I'll take his word on this, and here it is: tan=damage. If you protect your skin from tanning, you'll look younger longer and have a decreased risk of developing skin cancer. Also, the damage is cumulative; only two or three really bad sunburns, regardless of when or how close together they occurred, will increase your cancer risk astronomically. You don't "recover." The skin "remembers" the damage, whether it's incurred during a few severe exposure episodes, or at lower levels over longer periods of time, as one would experience over years of tanning, regardless of the UV source.

I'm a few weeks shy of 47, and still get carded. I look at my mid-80s parents, both of whom took rational protective measures against UV radiation, and they easily look 15 years younger than the calendar indicates. I much prefer growing old like them to either dying prematurely from cancer or looking like a cured tobacco leaf with a face.